The media resurgence

The Kylie Rittenhouse story is turning into one of the biggest news stories of the year. I emphatically believe he should be acquitted of all charges, as he was not only exercising his 2nd amendment rights, but acting in self-defense.

The biggest winners of this story are the media. I remember in 2017-2019 incessant stories about ad budgets being slashed and news sites such as Vox having mass-layoffs, but the events of the past year have created a news resurgence: pandemic, looting and rioting, and a presidential election all compressed into just a single year, means massive page views and tons of ad-clicks. Scott Adams in June 2019 predicted that Vox Media and The Daily Beast would not exist in a year, and it looks like I was correct again in predicting they would not be going anywhere. If there is such a thing as a news singularity, we are definitely rapidly approaching it. For all the talk about the death of print media or the death of journalism, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall St. Journal still pack a big punch.

Moreover, billionaires are backing these publications, allowing such publication to operate at a deficit indefinitely. This is what Scott failed to account for in his prediction. Billionaires are more than happy to subsidize money-losing publications, as it is more effective to the use the media to subtlety nudge ‘the nation’ or key voting blocs in a certain direction, versus buying advertising, which is expensive and less effective, as people are less inclined to trust ads, as opposed to supposedly impartial journalists. The Washington Post, owned by Jeff Bezos, is especially effective in this regard. I imagine Bezos supports low taxes but opposes the social-conservative agenda, so his strategy would be to publish stories that encourage Biden to adopt a platform that puts more emphasis on left-wing cultural issues (such as healthcare), as opposed to economics issues such as taxation. Or to spur Biden to adopt a ‘third way’ policy approach, similar Bill Clinton, who found success in 1992 with such a strategy.

Back to the Rittenhouse story. I see parallels between the George Floyd death. I think both sides are looking for martyrs, saviors, and heroes, those being George Floyd and Breonna Taylor for the ‘left’ and Rittenhouse for the ‘right.’ There is the shared perception, by both sides, that their leadership has failed, so they are turning to these saviors for moral guidance or for a sense of belonging. Biden, and to a lesser extent, Trump, cannot unite their respective followers in the way Floyd and Rittenhouse have. Trump keeps tweeting about ‘law and order’ but has done little to provide it, and here we have Kylie Rittenhouse taking the initiative and actually doing something to bring about law and order rather than just tweeting about it, and for his bravery has paid a large price.

But morale for the left has fallen markedly in recent weeks. Biden somehow bumbled and stumbled his way to being the nominee despite a total lack of enthusiasm for him online (at least as I have observed) and not even being able to articulate much of a vision. His owly selling point is that he is not Trump, and that he is ‘electable.’ There are plenty of people who were (and still are) enthusiastic for Sanders, but it is much much harder to find democrats who are equally enthusiastic for Biden, or are as enthusiastic about Biden as Trump voters are enthusiastic for Trump. Biden nominating Kamala Harris also failed to breathe life into the ticket, as many liberals see his pick as an attempt at race and gender pandering rather than her being the most qualified, and that Harris is just such an unlikable, opportunistic person that even many liberals cannot support her despite being a woman of color.

Trump’s approval rating according to 538 is surging, from a low of 40% a month ago to now 43.5%, which is close to all-time highs. This shows how the liberal media’s attempts at painting Trump supporters as racist or accusing Trump of negligence in regard to Covid, have failed. The longer the protests drag on, the worse it makes left seem, by appearing complicit in them. ‘Law and order’ is a platform that even many white Democrats support.